Jinsu wanted to bury her head in her pillow and scream in frustration.  Or let her anger out by messing up her room.  Or anything, frankly.  A dart board with the faces of the various people still on the Attayear on it would have been exceptionally nice.  Paper, though, would have to make do as she paced her fury out.

Minhwan.  Rip.  New piece of paper.

Kyuhyun.  Rip.  New piece of paper.

Youngdo.  Suddenly furious again, Jinsu crumpled the paper viciously and tore it apart.  Even when compared to Minhwan, Youngdo was an absolute git.  Jinsu was seriously regretting not punching him in the face.

On second thoughts, the fourth piece of paper could be another Youngdo one.  She ripped it briskly into little strips and cast it aside.

The door opened and somebody knocked on it – Jinsu didn’t see who because she had no inclination whatsoever to look over at them.

“You need to calm down,” Baekhyun murmured, trying to tug the sheaf of paper out of her hand.

Jinsu rounded on him.  “What, you think I’m hormonal as well?”

He backed off with his hands up.  “No!  Of course not—”  His bottom lip tucked under his teeth.

“What, Baekhyun?” Jinsu demanded.

He looked torn for a second, but then his face became resolute.  “You’re not exactly helping your case,” he got out in a rush before his shoulders slumped.  “There, I said it.  Stop trying to make it snow indoors.”

Jinsu glared at him.  He stared back.

“Fighting like this isn’t going to help,” he admonished her in a gentle tone.  “We need to work together.  Everybody’s stressed and tensions are very high – and simply put, the reason nobody wants to listen to you telling them the truth is because they don’t want to believe it.  It’s not convenient for them.  We all just want to get back home before this machine falls apart with us inside and leaves us stuck forever.  You have to understand that.  They don’t want to know that their theory of time travel isn’t going to work because they’re so desperate for it to work, and even the ones who do believe you aren’t going to find it easy – people like Junmyeon aren’t necessarily looking for a fight, for example.  They’re looking to fit in.”

“So you want me to kiss and make up,” Jinsu deadpanned, crossing her arms across her chest, “with Minhwan and Youngdo and Kyuhyun and the rest.”

Baekhyun opened his mouth to reply, but Jinsu beat him to it.

“I’m not angry because they disagree with me.”  She spread her arms.  “They can think whatever the bloody hell they like because I know I’m still going to have to pull everything through and get us back home eventually, but they are literally ignoring and dismissing me and putting me down like my father has done my whole life because I’m young and because I’m a girl.  I refuse to take that sh*t anymore.  I’m just as capable as the rest of you, so if you’re going to defend them again, you can off.”

After a good long moment of contemplation, Baekhyun sat down on the spare bed.

“I stand by what I told you last night.”  He looked calmly up at her.  “It might feel like we have to outlaw the rules of heaven because Minhwan and Youngdo are enormous ars*holes, but I’m on your side.  I’m not going to drop you, so I’d appreciate it if you don’t lump me in with the rest of them.”

Jinsu raised an incredulous eyebrow.  “How on earth am I supposed to trust you?”

His shoulders slumped and he looked a little dispirited.  “I thought we were past this.”

Jinsu tried to retort, but he continued before she could.

“Why are we even arguing about this like an immature pair of brats, anyway?  There are way more important things we need to discuss.”

Jinsu almost snapped at him to get out, that she was done being treated like she was juvenile and petty, but that would be behaving like an immature brat, so at the last moment she bit her tongue so that she wouldn’t speak.  Baekhyun motioned for her to sit down, and she reluctantly did.

“We’re both in similar situations here,” he told her.  “We’re both being unfairly maligned because of our families connections to the Attayear and its current state, which the Minhwan Mob Squad like to pin equally on both of us because your father should have checked its safely properly and because I should take responsibility for what my cousins did and stopped them.  Obviously, we have nothing to do with either situation and they’re outsourcing scapegoats onto us, but don’t forget they can’t actually do anything with the Attayear without us.”

“Without you, you mean.”  Jinsu crossed her arms again.

A light flicker of annoyance passed through Baekhyun’s eyes.  “Us.  I would have to be exceptionally stupid to think that I know enough about this machine to assume complete command over it.”

Jinsu quietened down.  Sensing this, Baekhyun cleared his throat.  The tip of his tongue swept briefly over his lips.

“From what you were saying. . .” He hesitated.  “Before we go back to our time, we’ll have to find Jongdae and Sehun and then pick up Minseok and the rest.”

Nodding, Jinsu looked down at her fingers, attempting not to fidget.  Instead, her eyes were drawn to the still-ugly bruises on the digits.

“How?” Baekhyun asked in a defeated tone.  “We don’t have the software or the expertise to get rid of that virus and that means that we can’t input exact times and coordinates to get to.”

Jinsu bit her lip.  “I know.”

“Kyuhyun’s idea just makes so much sense in this context.”  Baekhyun rubbed his face in frustration.

“Not really.  We can’t guarantee we’ll stop at the right time or in the right coordinates there either.”

Baekhyun conceded the point with a raised eyebrow and a nod.

“And I know that my dad genuinely wouldn’t let us go back.”

“But that would salvage his reputation, surely?”

Jinsu looked up.  “You don’t know my dad.  He hates losing, but if he has to lose, he’d much rather lose than be beaten by somebody.  And if those somebodies are a girl and somebody from the Byun family, hell would have to freeze over and become a ski resort before he’d ever allow that.”

“So we’re stuck.”

Jinsu shrugged helplessly.  “I think I have a way that might work, but I’m not an engineer so I want to run it by Kyungsoo first.”

“What is